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UBTECH is aiming to turn humanoid robot manufacturing into a high-speed production business.
The Shenzhen-based robotics company commissioned a 14,000-square-meter factory in Liuzhou, China, on Sept. 12, according to company information reported by the Global Times. UBTECH says the facility will eventually produce more than 10,000 robots annually, with a target of completing one robot every 10 minutes.
The factory signals China’s growing push to move humanoids from demonstrations into mass production. The bigger test is whether manufacturers can build the robots reliably, deploy them successfully, and sell them profitably.
According to UBTECH, the factory uses flexible work cells instead of fixed overhead conveyors. Wheeled Cruzr Y1 and Cruzr S2 robots equipped with 3D vision handle depalletizing, parts replenishment, and component transport alongside autonomous forklifts and automated guided vehicles.
Final assembly uses rotating work platforms paired with collaborative robotic arms. UBTECH says each humanoid requires more than 2,000 fastening operations across roughly 50 screw specifications. An automated torque system records depth, torque, and angle data to detect fastening errors.
Finished platforms then undergo more than four hours of stress testing for joints, balance, and payloads before passing through an automotive-grade lighting tunnel for visual inspection. A 65-square-meter automated stereoscopic high-bay warehouse buffers up to 112 completed units, improving floor space utilization by more than 50%.
Siemens offers the digital backbone
UBTECH co-developed the facility's software architecture with Siemens Digital Industries Software. Using the Siemens Plant Simulation suite, engineers built a 1:1 digital twin of the factory floor to simulate material routing and AGV buffers before committing physical machinery.
A manufacturing operations management platform coordinates shop-floor production and assigns each robot a unique serial code that connects parts origins, torque data, and test results throughout its lifecycle.
Pang Jianxin, vice president of UBTECH, pointed to regional manufacturing density as the essential catalyst for the project in an interview with the Global Times.
"Without the Chinese supply chain, mass-producing complex components would be extremely difficult unless cost advantages were completely sacrificed," Pang said.
"Chinese robots have already entered the global first tier. This foundation rests on the large number of engineers, scientists, and application scenarios accumulated in China over the past 10 to 20 years, which have formed a very strong supply-chain base, manufacturing capability, as well as research and development strength. In industrial applications, China is also at the forefront because it possesses the richest scenarios," Pang added.
The capital and software chasm
Pumping out hardware at scale does not instantly solve unit economics or enterprise software gaps. While UBTECH delivered 921 full-size humanoid units in the first half of 2026, the company posted an interim loss of 339 million yuan (approximately $48 million) against 1.27 billion yuan (approximately $179 million) in revenue.
Factory pilot programs also do not guarantee successful commercial deployments. Customers will need the robots to perform consistently in production environments, where failures can interrupt operations and increase support costs.
What eWeek found: China’s humanoid race is moving to the factory floor
China’s humanoid robotics competition is entering a new phase. Manufacturers are no longer competing only over which robot can walk faster, lift more weight, or complete the most impressive demonstration. They are increasingly competing over who can manufacture robots consistently, lower production costs, and deliver them at commercial scale.
UBTECH’s Liuzhou factory reflects that shift. Its flexible production cells, automated logistics, digital production records, and stated capacity of more than 10,000 robots annually are infrastructure investments—not improvements to a single robot demonstration.
The strategy also highlights a potential advantage for Chinese robotics companies: proximity to component suppliers, manufacturing engineers, automation companies, and prospective industrial customers. That ecosystem could shorten the cycle between testing robots in factories, identifying weaknesses, and incorporating improvements into the next production run.
However, manufacturing capacity is not the same as market demand or commercial viability. UBTECH’s 339 million yuan (approximately $48 million) interim loss shows that increasing production has not yet produced profitability. The company must still demonstrate that customers can deploy its robots reliably and obtain enough value to justify their purchase and support costs.
The next stage of China’s humanoid race will therefore be decided less by viral demonstrations and more by factory output, field reliability, customer adoption, and economics. UBTECH’s new facility is an early test of whether the industry can make that transition.
Read more: Chinese humanoid robots are already moving into real-world jobs, showing where manufacturers must prove that their machines can perform reliably outside controlled demonstrations.